The Saga of the Swamp Thing (1982) #10

John Totleben joins Yeates on the art this issue, but it’s hard to see what effect his inks have on it. The issue is almost incomprehensibly dense, with Pasko starting in the States somewhere and ending up in Dachau. Not sure how well the big reveal works—the Nazis were fueled by a powerful psychic who’s been reincarnated and wants to start the Holocaust up again.

It seems a little insensitive.

What’s best about the issue, which barely features Swamp Thing—it’s more of a global-trotting thriller for his sidekicks, Liz and… the blond-haired dude—is how much Pasko and Yeates fit into it. It’s fully organic, lush comic book narrative. Yeates doesn’t employ any special panel arrangement, he just impossibly fits everything on each page.

The Stranger backup from Cavalieri and Carrillo is weak. The Stranger helps rid the world of an endangered species. Bully for him.

The Saga of the Swamp Thing (1982) #9

I never thought, reading the issues before this one, I would see cheesecake in Pasko and Yeates’s Swamp Thing run. But this issue isn’t Yeates, it’s Jan Duursema. Duursema handles the art in varying degrees of quality. With Tom Mandrake inking, there are some very iconic Swamp Thing action moments. Duursema and Mandrake make Swamp Thing look even more like Redondo’s rendition in the first series than Yeates ever does. But there’s also a strange approach to people—Duursema likes long shots, with the moving figures looking awkwardly static.

It’s not terrible art, it’s just not great.

It’s also strange because there’s no gimmick, no monster. It’s a very plot-filled issue, with Pasko working through a lot of the series’s threads, sort of unraveling a ball of yarn.

Joey Cavalieri takes over Phantom Stranger scripts this issue and he and Carrillo’s story is fine supernatural mystery. It’s perfectly serviceable.

Detective Comics (1937) #526

It’s a gorgeous issue. Newton and Alcala doing Batman’s rogues gallery is possibly an unsurpassable event. Maybe eight pages in, they have this incomparable Joker close-up. DC ought to reprint the issue oversized just so one can really look at it.

But it’s also a really good issue. Besides Jason Todd’s endless thought balloons–not bad, just too many of them–it’s a perfect Batman comic. Conway splits the action–Batman, Talia and Catwoman go one way, Batgirl and Robin go another. They meet at the end with Jason Todd, in a Robin outfit, joining.

Batman with the two women makes for good stuff (oh, Vicki Vale gets dismissed without a thought from Bruce), since they’re all very aware of each other. Similarly, Robin and Batgirl work well as a team.

The end, with Bruce, Dick and Jason Todd, brought a tear to my eye. It’s way too simple, but also undeniably effective.

Batman (1940) #359

Well, Batman is having a freakout–over women he decides. Having to decide between Selina and Vicki (mind you, Selina hasn’t appeared since the last really good issue Conway wrote) has made Bruce lose it. It’s why he let Killer Croc go he decides.

There’s a bunch of eye-rolling logic this issue and the Dan Jurgens art doesn’t provide much diversion from them. With the Giordano inks, the comic looks good enough, it’s just really boring. Besides the Batman stuff, there’s Killer Croc consolidating his power (still) and his origin. Jurgens and Giordano do a good job drawing him, scary but palatable.

Then there’s the Todd family stuff. Jason Todd’s parents here are complete morons and Batman’s fine with them getting killed to further his hunt for Killer Croc (because he let him go… because of Selina). It’s amazing how little responsibility Bruce takes for himself. He’s a jackass.

Detective Comics (1937) #525

Hmm. Young Dan Jurgens. Guess it’s why Bruce looks like Clark Kent without glasses.

I’m curious to see Conway’s original script–he includes expository scene after expository scene, all the fill in space–and there only good scene is incomplete. Bruce breaks it off with Vicki by acting like a thoughtless ass, but it’s never made clear if he’s really just being an ass or if it’s to get rid of her.

The Killer Croc stuff is also a problem… Batman’s convinced his subconscious keeps letting Croc win. His suspicion is based on Croc letting him escape from the Squid’s gang–Batman thinks he can’t let himself take Croc in.

Apparently, Croc being a savage murderer doesn’t bother Batman in this circumstance.

Jurgen’s has some good layouts–his Batman is weak–and the art’s passable superhero stuff.

The Green Arrow backup continues to offend. At least Ollie keeps the unions safe following a rousing speech.

Batman (1940) #358

It’s a strange use of Curt Swan. Something about his Killer Croc just doesn’t work. The scales, the figure… he like a Gold Key Star Trek alien. Otherwise, the art is fantastic. Swan does something with Batman’s cowl I’ve never seen before and it’s just great.

The story isn’t bad. It’s Batman hunting Killer Croc while Croc is proving himself to the Gotham underworld. Lots of action, not much character stuff. There’s a scene with Dick and Bruce where Bruce internally laments Dick being hopeful. It’s kind of funny but not really… Conway is trying to make Bruce more serious, but then has him run foolishly into fight after fight this issue–while reminding the reader he just got beat up last issue for similar behavior.

It’s a somewhat indistinct issue, while Croc coming off more like a Spider-Man villain than a Batman one (but then, Croc’s lasted, hasn’t he?).

Detective Comics (1937) #524

Once again, if Bruce, Dick and Alfred weren’t stupid enough to leave the door unlocked with Vicki Vale, Jim Gordon and a bunch of strangers in Wayne Manor, they wouldn’t have to kill Jason Todd’s mom for finding out Bruce is Batman….

Oh, wait, some of that statement is incorrect. I guess they don’t decide to kill her, just Dick is going to talk her into keeping it a secret. Thank goodness she’s going to get killed in an issue or two anyway.

The story is otherwise indistinct. Killer Croc shoots the Squid, which is a sad sendoff for Conway’s Eisner homage, though it’s not like the character worked in a serious setting.

Beautiful art from Newton and Giordano makes it a fine issue… though the ending leaves something to be desired.

The Novick art is better than usual on the Green Arrow backup, which is too silly for words.

Batman (1940) #357

Okay, now I get why Conway’s wasting time with Dick going to the circus–it’s to introduce Jason Todd (pre-Crisis Jason Todd, who has the same origin as Dick, but blond hair).

What’s funny about that story is how out of touch Batman is with the Gotham underworld–Killer Croc (who I don’t think Batman even knows about yet) is shaking down businesses for protection money and it’s off Batman’s radar? Those late nights with Vicki Vale must be taking their toll.

Otherwise, Conway spends the majority of the issue on reintroducing his Eisner homage, the Squid, as Gotham’s new crime boss. It’s strange to see the Newton and Alcala art (which looks more like Gene Colan than Newton with any other inker besides Alcala) realize such a strange-looking villain in an otherwise realistic approach.

The issue’s fine… though, again, Conway’s plot relies on Batman being moronically overconfident.

Detective Comics (1937) #523

Batman kills Solomon Grundy at the end of this story. I wonder if it was easier for writers to do Grundy stories because he’s not human or alive so they could kill him off every time. There’s not even a real explanation of how he comes to Gotham.

The issue’s okay. DeZuniga’s inks aren’t the best for Colan. There are a lot of great faces and expressions, but the figures are too static. It’s like DeZuniga solidifies too much of Colan’s pencils. The figures jump out of the panels.

Conway’s spinning his wheels for a story–Alfred has a page of thought balloons about how Batman is basically just making himself miserable when he ought to be relieved following all the recent events. There’s even a couple wasted pages on Dick, just for filler.

Speaking of filler, Green Arrow fights some goofy villains in his backup. It makes little impression.

Batman (1940) #356

It’s a somewhat anti-climatic end to the Hugo Strange storyline Conway had been working on for… a couple years? Hugo shows up, back from the dead, with an army of androids, and Batman doesn’t bat an eye.

The art is so gorgeous, it doesn’t really matter. I’m not sure if Giordano is my favorite inker for Newton, but he does a great job with it. The issue even has a full page panel, the first I can remember from Newton, and it works… the art makes the story work.

The problem is with the pacing. Conway didn’t develop Strange as a villain, just as a shock guest star. So this issue needs to be beautiful to see, because the story is really just a perfunctory aside.

Though there is Bruce suspecting he’s probably lying to Vicki about his feelings for her. I like Conway acknowledging Bruce’s indecisiveness; it brings humanity.